From our Special Envoy in Doha,
Argentina blows a blow. Like Pablo Aimar. Lionel Scaloni’s assistant came close to fainting when Leo Messi opened the scoring in a double-locked match by Mexican wrestlers, obviously very uninterested in football on Saturday night. There is reason to be relieved. In the same vein, the coach’s brother sent him a text message after the meeting to tell him that he had… cried over Messi’s goal.
“I think you have to have a little more common sense, tempers Scaloni. I don’t think we should play more than one game of football. We have to make the players feel that it’s a football match, otherwise it will always be difficult. There is a feeling of relief but it’s hard to make people understand that the sun will shine tomorrow, whether we win or not. »
It will still shine a little more when you wake up. Thanks to the victory (2-0), the Argentines avoid the fiasco, get back into the qualifying places for the round of 16 of the World Cup and aspire to first place. The Grail will be decided in the group’s “final” against Poland. “We had to win for the peace of all, reacted the former Blaugrana. This allows us to face Poland in a better way. »
“And then No. 10 scored…”
The dream of offering Lionel Messi a world exit at the height of his career remains for Argentina. Note also that for the time being, the Parisian is the only savior of ambitions at first sight too big for this team. Lionel Scaloni would almost regret the dependence of his collective on the talent of Messi. “The first period was not good, we made too many horizontal passes, but we made some adjustments and we played better afterwards, we found players in the middle, we won duels. And then you know what happened. The N°10 scored, which is what he does best. »
A goal almost out of nowhere, from a banal phase. So much so that, to tell you the truth, we missed the goal in a moment of drowsiness. In any case, it took two or three slow motions to fully admire this perfect control over a shift from Di Maria to put himself in the best position to shoot. A surgically whipped balloon. Ochoa did what he could, but it’s never enough with Messi. While we’re at it, a thought for the Mexican goalkeeper who will have taken two sacred pawns in the throat. The second of Enzo Fernandez, pfiouh, que golazo!
But let’s stay on Messi, his kisses at the Bombonera de Lusail, the ovations of the Argentinian hinchas, the joy of Di Maria who lifts him up as if he had just offered the 3rd star to his country. He gives himself a bit of a spare and that’s not bad. Everyone, and Leo the first, is aware that Argentina’s journey sounds like a farewell tour on a global scale. Hence the heightened pressure of the event. Messi, to finish. “It’s a relief and a joy for the whole dressing room. It gives us peace to depend on ourselves. And of this little number 10 not too bad.